WildClan: The Great Forest
by Red Khezu
Summary: What happends when an independent clan decides to live in a jungle? Follow the cats of WildClan as they wander into a new unknown territory, trying to find a place to set their camp.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Silvery moonlight shone through the great trees. A tiny mouse was searching the forest floor, hoping to find something to eat. One of it´s ears twitched; there were noises not far away. As the noises grew louder, the mouse dropped the leaf it was searching and hid inside one of the many bushes. At that same moment, a black tomcat shot out of the bushes on the other side. Clearly he was being chased by something. Trying hard to avoid trees and rocks, the cat raced through the sea of trees. The constant running was hurting his paws and water splashed on his body as he ran through a large puddle, but he didn't stop. Suddenly one of his front paws gets stuck under the roots of a tree and he trips. He awkwardly got up and spat out some dirt.

The frightened cat looked with huge, green eyes in the direction where he came from, half expecting to immediately see the chaser jump out at him. But nothing came. No chaser nor any sounds. Relieved, the black tom started laughing a bit nervously.

"I...I actually made it"

His little celebration didn't last long, as movement in the shadows revealed that he was not alone after chaser had creeped up on the cat from the other side and looked at him with battle-hungry eyes. The chaser stepped into the moonlight and was completely visible now. A big, black bird with long legs and a blue face stood threatening over the cat who looked small compared to the bird. It slowly walked closer and let out an annoyed screech. Then, without any warning, the bird stormed forwards and attacked the defenseless tom. He leaped out of the way of the attacking creature, which then stormed into a tree. It let out a grunt but immediately turned around to face the tom again. Too worn out from the run, the cat gave up and watched as the oddly shaped creature stalked closer. The bird raised one of it's feet and slammed it down right on the cat's back, the talons digging in his skin. The savage creature then rolled the tom over on his back and raised it's head in preparation of an attack.

"Let me go, you foul creature!" The black cat yelled in agony, but the bird didn't even slow down.  
Instead, it quickly slammed it's sharp beak down into the cat's right eye…


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Grass shook heavily as wind soared across the plain. No other noises could be heard other than the wind. Except for enthusiastic sounds coming from a large group of cats standing close together in the middle of the plain.

"Wow, look at that little kit! He is so cute!"

"Does he have a name yet?"

Suddenly a large dark brown she-cat stepped in the middle of the crowd.

"That's enough everybody, give them some space. There's still some hunting to do"

Slowly the enthusiastic mewing became less loud and cats started to pad away from the spot where a new kit was born.

"Thanks, Ebonystar" Skybreeze dipped her head and the leader nodded in return and left.

A tiny gray kit was wailing while Skybreeze rhythmically rasped her tongue over the kit to dry him and calm him down. A black tom who was sitting next to her looked thoughtfully at the tiny scrap of fur.

"Is something bothering you, Darkwind?"

Darkwind let out a small sigh and looked up at the sky, deeply thinking. After a few moments he looked back at Skybreeze.

"I'm just afraid… do you think our kit will make it through the journey? We haven't seen a suitable place in a while and no one knows where we are going. What if we never find a place where we can live?"

"Well" Skybreeze answered "WildClan is a strong clan. We'll all get through this together. Even if we don't find a suitable place to live, I'm sure we will make the most of it anyway"

Darkwind nodded weakly, not convinced by the soothing words of his mate but he decided not to continue about it. Today was a happy day. Not only for them, but for the whole clan too. Thinking about the kit made Darkwind wonder what his name is going to be.

"Have you thought of a name yet?"

As soon as she heard the question, Skybreeze stared at the kit trying to figure out what a good name should be.

"I can't think of anything…"

"Name him after his looks. Something remarkable on his muzzle maybe?"

"Well…." Skybreeze stared a little longer at the kit "He has fur… oh, we can call him Furkit!"

Darkwind stared at her with a frown. "But everyone in the clan has fur…"

"Yes, but no one in the clan has 'fur' in their name and I think the name suits him"

Darkwind looked a the gray kit and then back to Skybreeze. _What she says does make a bit sense… and I guess the name suits him._

"Very well, Furkit it is then. I will go tell Ebonystar and then return. You will be fine on your own for a while, right?"

Skybreeze nodded and gave Darkwind a quick lick on his cheek. When Darkwind had left, Skybreeze dropped down on her side, allowing Furkit to get milk.

"Drink much, little one. You will need it to grow strong for the rest of the journey…."

* * *

 _2 moons later_

"You're it!"

Furkit grunted as Blizzardkit swiftly touched him and speeded away. Not hesitating another moment, Furkit charged after the brown tom.

"Don't go too far, now!" Blizzardkit's mother, Goldensplash called anxiously after them, only to be calmed down by her mate Condorscar.

"They'll be fine, just let them play. I know they are young but they haven't been this happy for such a long time"

Furkit noticed that he was standing still and heard Blizzardkit impatiently calling out his name, so he continued to charge after him. He followed Blizzardkit for a while until suddenly Blizzardkit crossed the patch of violets.

"Blizzardkit, get back!" _Don't you remember we aren't supposed to go into the unexplored territory?_ Furkit kept the last words to himself, because judging by the challenging look on Blizzardkit's face, he knew that Blizzardkit was aware.

"Ha, Furkit! Are you afraid?"

Trying to stay calm, Furkit inhaled and exhaled slowly. _Don't listen to him… I'm not scared, I'm smart. Unexplored territory can be dangerous._

But Blizzardkit continued taunting him.

"You are a scared mouse! I can hear you squeaking from here!"

Furkit's eye twitched and he began racing towards the spot where Blizzardkit stood taunting him.

"Oh, you're going down now"

Blizzardkit made a little jump of suprise and ran away as fast as he could. But Furkit's suprise had disorientated him and he tripped over a pebble and rolled down the hill.

Furkit saw Blizzardkit disappear down the hill and he began calling his name.

"Blizzardkit, are you alright?"

But there was no response. Panicked, Furkit ran down the hill but still couldn't see a sign of Blizzardkit. Then he saw movement in the corner of his eyes, Blizzardkit had rolled into a puddle of mud and was completely covered, camouflaging him.

"I know, I look like a walking mud pile… Stop staring like that, it's not _that_ funny"

But Furkit wasn't looking at Blizzardkit at all. Instead, he looked with huge disbelieving eyes at what was behind Blizzardkit.

"Blizzardkit, look behind you…"

While shaking off some of the mud, Blizzardkit slowly turned around. His jaw fell open.

Ahead of them lay a huge forest. One of the biggest they had ever seen with trees, larger than ever.

"We have to tell the others"

Blizzardkit gave an agreeing nod and together they stormed off in the direction of their clanmates. But when they went up the hill, they ran into a patrol of three cats.

Nettlesting, Softbelly and Pebblepaw. The three were quickly breathing, as if they had been running for a while.

"We've been looking everywhere for you, stupid furballs!"

"Nettlesting, calm down they are just kits" Softbelly gave Nettlesting a sharp look and then turned her head to look at the kits.

"But Nettlesting is right. You shouldn't have gone out by yourself. You aren't allowed to leave the camp"

Suddenly Blizzardkit stood up, his neck fur began to rise and he looked furious.

"Camp? What camp? We don't even have dens there! We have to drink muddy water, I've had it with that place. And Furkit and I just happen to have found the best place to make a REAL camp. Isn't that right, Furkit?"

Furkit hesitated for a moment. _We don't even know what's in that forest , mousebrain_

But he didn't want to disagree with his friend so he just awkwardly nodded. Softbelly tilted her head in disbelieve, but the white-bellied she-cat was curious.

"Can you show us?" She asked.

Blizzardkit nodded quickly and in a blink he was gone.

"Lead the wa- oh, he's already gone"

They quickly followed the enthusiastic kitten down the hill. Furkit slowly followed them, less enthusiastic than Blizzardkit. For some reason he had the feeling that this could not end well. He just hoped that they wouldn't go in and explore because he knew that the adventurous Blizzardkit plus unknown territory was a bad combination.

 _Oh well… I don't think they would let us explore anyway. Having kits anywhere outside of camp is a bad idea and Ebonystar has forbidden it. They won't be so mouse-brained to do it anyway….right?_ Furkit looked at the cats walking in front of him and suddenly doubted his own thoughts. They looked way to excited to care about any punishment that would come if they would take him and Blizzardkit into the forest.

"Here it is! Big trees huh? I bet you never saw bigger ones"

Blizzardkit proudly looked at the other cats. Furkit looked back at him with narrowed eyes. _As if he found it on his own._ The patrol they had run into looked at the trees and everything around them with huge eyes. It took a while before one of them finally responded. It was Pebblepaw.

"This. Is. Amazing. We should go and explore!"

"Now, now" Softbelly interrupted "we can't just walk right in. Who knows what's in there? Eventhough…. it looks really inviting…. Nettlesting, what do you think?"

It didn't take long for Nettlesting to respond.

"We should head in. We can bring back lots of food and tell the great news later! They'll see us as heroes and besides, we don't want to give them false hope if the forest turns out to be awful"

The 3 cats exchanged a few agreeing glances and then disappeared behind the thick vegetation.

Furkit and Blizzardkit quickly padded after them. Furkit was really worried about what will happen now but there was no point in arguing. Around him were all kinds of different plants and he could hear the weirdest noises coming from everywhere.

" _Stop!"_

Softbelly's sudden warning made Furkit flinch. Startled, he looked at what Softbelly was seeing. It was a pond.

"Oh perfect" Nettlesting exclaimed "Water! We can drink and wash ourselves here! Let me see how deep it is" He raised a paw but before he could put it down in the water, he was stopped by Softbelly.

"Hey, stop! Don't you remember what happend to Whitestripe when he wanted to see how deep that lake was?"

"That poor tom sunk like a stone" Pebblepaw grimly said in the back of the group. There was a slilence for a while until Nettlesting flicked his tail as a sign for the others to follow. But the kits were too amazed of what was around them to notice that the others had left.

"Furkit, come see this." Furkit looked up and saw that Blizzardkit was standing next to a weird looking plant.

"Err… what is that?"

Blizzardkit shrugged. "I don't know. But this plant was open before. I saw a fly or something land on it and the whole thing just snapped shut!"

Furkit chuckeld. "Yea suuuuure. And I just saw a tree with paws that picked up a bird."

Blizzardkit narrowed his eyes and so did Furkit.

"It's true!"

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is!"

The two continued fighting for a while, both not planning on giving up any time soon, when they suddenly heard a hiss coming from behind them.

Ashamed, Furkit let his tail droop. _I probably scared all the prey away…_

"Sorry, we were just-"

Furkit's answer was cut off with another hiss. Now Furkit was starting to feel a little bit annoyed.

"Okay, I get it. I have to be quiet. I will be quiet if-"

Once again, he was cut off when a third hiss sounded. Furkit was now almost raging and he was determined to release a storm of angry comments on the one who was hissing. With a tiny growl, more like a squeak, he turned around. Then he flinched. There was no cat behind him…

"Blizzardkit, you heard the hissing too… right?"

He turned to see that Blizzardkit was nodding slowly. He was startled too. Furkit turned his head in the direction of where the hissing came from again and this time noticed something odd. He heard leafs rustle and a part of the ground seemed like it was moving. He backed off slowly and then he saw it. That wasn't the ground that was moving, it had eyes.

"Blizzardkit, that's not the ground… that's a-"

"Snaaaaaaaake!"


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Before Furkit could finish talking, Blizzardkit was already screaming in panic.

"It's a snake! A snake! Run!"

Without hesitating, Blizzardkit ran off in a random direction and at the same moment, the snake lunged at Furkit with a wide open mouth. He jumped aside just in time and the snake landed heavily on the ground. Now Furkit got a close look at the snake. It was gigantic. He had heard many stories about snakes from elders, but none of them mentioned a snake this big. One of the elders even told him that they had killed a snake and that looked impossible with this one. Shaking away his thoughts, Furkit ran away also. He desperately searched for any signs of Blizzardkit but he was nowhere to be found. Running was very hard in this forest and he tried his to avoid tripping over loose tree roots. Suddenly he saw a glimpse of Blizzardkit's light brown pelt disappearing in what looked like a burrow. He quickly followed until he stood near the entrance of the burrow. Then he turned around to see if the snake was still following and was surprise it still was. _What's with the snake?! Ugh, I must block the entrance quickly!_ He looked around and almost immediately saw a tiny boulder near the entrance. Knowing he could never pull that in front of the entrance, he walked behind the boulder and pushed with all his strength. _I hate my tiny paws!_ The mixture of anger and adrenaline gave Furkit the tiny bit of extra strength he needed to shove the boulder out of place and slowly it started rolling. Furkit made a tiny jump of accomplishment and then quickly raced into the burrow before the boulder rolled in place, perfectly in front of the entrance. He couldn't see much but he felt that this was actually a pretty big burrow. It kind a felt like a tiny cave system. At some points he had to be careful not to bump his head, but other than that he had enough space to walk around.

"Blizzardkit, are you there?"

A grunt coming from the right was enough to conclude that Blizzardkit was safe and sound. Furkit felt like boasting.  
"Hey… did you see what I did just now? Pretty cool huh… with the boulder and stuff…"

He didn't heard a response and he suddenly realized that Blizzardkit must feel really sad now that he had to be saved by him so he decided to change the subject.

"I'm not sure how we are going to get out now though… any ideas?"

This time Blizzardkit responded, he still sounded a little sad.  
"We can just go through the other entrance…"

"Ah ofcourse. Good thinking, Blizzardkit!"

 _Praising him must cheer him up,_ Furkit thought. Suddenly his eyes widened as he came to a realization.

"Wait, there is another entrance?! What about the snake?!"

As if talking about the snake summoned it, sounds of pebbles falling on the ground along with silent hissing announced that the snake had found the other entrace. Furkit was terrified now, he couldn't see the snake. He could only hear the slithering of the snake as it crept closer and closer. He knew that Blizzardkit was terrified too as he was trembling beside him.

"Quick, help me move the boulder!" Furkit shouted in panic and became pushing the boulder. Blizzardkit quickly helped but it wasnt no use. The boulder was stuck in place.

 _This is the end. This is totally the end for me and Blizzardkit…._

* * *

Nettlesting was leading Softbelly and his apprentice Pebblepaw out of the giant forest as they headed back towards their camp. Nettlesting had decided it should be him who would tell the clan about the discovery of the forest.

"And who is going to say we lost the kits…..?" Pebblepaw asked dryly.

"Let's not mention them… maybe they won't suspect"

"Oh yeah that sounds like a pretty _mousebrained_ idea" Softbelly replied sarcastically.

"You think they would just forget about them?!

Nettlesting didn't care what Softbelly said. He just shrugged and walked further. Nobody spoke during the rest of the walk to the camp. _They are probably worried about the kits,_ Nettlesting thought _, it's not like we've lost a great warrior or something._ When they finally reached the camp, two cats quickly ran up to them. It was Darkwind and Condorscar. Nettlesting rolled his eyes. _Oh dear…. their fathers._  
"Have you seen our kits?" Darkwind was the first one to speak, he looked worried.

Nettlesting shook his head and silently walked past them towards the spot where Ebonystar was eating a tiny sparrow. Before he started talking to her, Nettlesting turned his head to see if Pebblepaw and Softbelly were talking to the fathers of the lost kits. They were. He narrowed his eyes _. Don't say anything…_ he thought and then turned his head towards Ebonystar.  
"Greetings Ebonystar. I have important news to share with you, if I have the permission"

Ebonystar nodded her head in approval but didn't stop eating. She hasn't eaten anything in a while, prey was scarce around here and she always made sure the rest of the clan ate first. Nettlestinf started talking about how they were patrolling and stumpled upon the great forest. He told her about the pond, the scents, the plants and the noises of many different kinds of prey. He didn't speak about the kits. After she thought for a while, and ate for a while, Ebonystar stood up.

"Ask Silverleap to organize a patrol to head into that forest. We must see if it is really suitable to live in. And when you're done with that you ca-"

Her voice was cut off by a panicked Skybreeze.  
"Ebonystar! Kits. Scent trail. Forest!"  
She was way to panicked to talk normally, so Ebonystart waiting for her to calm down. Skybreeze breathed in and out and started to speak again. "Darkwind was looking for Furkit and he found a scent trail leading to some giant forest…. but the scents got mixed up there and we couldn't smell it anymore…. oh, Ebonystar I'm so worried about Furkit. We think Blizzardkit might have gone in there too since they always play together"

Ebonystar wasn't sure what to do at first, but quickly came up with an idea. "Don't worry Skybreeze, I will organize a patrol to search for the kits. And I'm sure they are fine right now…"

* * *

"It's gonna eat us!" Blizzardkit was desperately looking for an exit while occasionally yelling in terror. The yelling wasn't helping Furkit trying not to stress. He couldn't think straight anymore, so he began desperately clawing the walls with his tiny claws. The impact of his claw on the wall wasn't causing much damage, but Furkit could see tiny pebbles falling from the roof. This gave him an idea. He began pulling all lose stones and roots. The snake was very close now, it wouldn't be long before it would start lunging again. But then as Furkit pulled a root on the roof, a rain of dirt and sand came down upon the snakes head, stunning it for a few heartbearts.

"Now, Blizzardkit! Run your paws off!" Furkit let out a battle screech as he jumped on the snakes head. Blizzardkit did the same and together they jumped off the snake toward the spot where daylight came from. They ran at record speed out of the burrow and they just kept running. _We're already lost,_ Furkit thought, _we might as well be lost in safety._ Furkit's belly growled. He was hungry, exhausted and lost. He looked up and saw that it was getting darker. He saw that Blizzardkit was sitting with his head low, sobbing. Furkit padded up to hIm and nuzzled him.

"It's gonna be alright. We will be found soon and then we can rest"

Suddenly they heard rustling in the bushes nearby. _Please, don't let it be the snake.._

"I think I heard something coming from here!"

Furkit's ears perked. That wasn't a snake. He recognized that voice, it was Silverleap the deputy. He was right, at that moment Silverleap padded out of the bushes along with 2 other cats. Furkit was too exhausted to see who the others were. When he tried to stand up, he got very dizzy and collapsed on the ground...


End file.
